Article Gold Open Access 2025

The role of personal and contextual factors when investigating technology integration in general and vocational education

Computers in Human Behavior
Journal · Vol. 163 · Art. 108475
Abstract

This study aims to investigate the extent to which perceived personal and school-related factors influence the quality of technology integration in teaching at the upper secondary level and how this differs between general and vocational education. The quality of technology integration was operationalised through the different activities supported by technology according to the ICAP model. We used data from a survey of 1660 teachers from 106 upper secondary schools in Switzerland to construct structural equation models of the interplay between school-related factors, teacher-related factors, and technology integration. Apart from confirming that technology integration is generally high across all school types, the study shows that among school-related factors, goal clarity is a significant predictor of constructive learning activities and of all the three personal factors considered in the study: teachers’ positive beliefs, technological knowledge, and technological pedagogical content knowledge. Moreover, these personal factors, in turn, constitute significant predictors of all the four types of learning activities. Both full-time and dual vocational schools integrate constructive and interactive activities more than general schools, and vocational teachers report significantly higher beliefs and lower technological pedagogical content knowledge than general school teachers. These findings confirm the importance of considering the interplay between personal and school-related factors when training teachers in technology integration, with interesting differences across school types that seem to depend more on the contextual culture than on the curriculum organisation. © 2024 The Authors

Keywords

Author Keywords

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Index Keywords

Teaching Teachers' learning female human Article Apprentices Vocational education curriculum controlled study vocation school Integration teacher knowledge high school Technology Integration school teacher Secondary schools Contextual factors General education General schools Learning Activity Related factors Technological pedagogical content knowledge
Author Affiliations
Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Lugano, Switzerland
Institute of Education, Universität Zürich, Zurich, ZH, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Lugano, Switzerland, Institute of Education, Universität Zürich, Zurich, ZH, Switzerland
Funding & Acknowledgements
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, SNF
Grant: 407740_187277, 187277
This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, project number 407740_187277. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, SNF
This work was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, project number 407740_187277. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
References 10 References
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